What the U.S. Owes Liberia

This is an article by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

When Liberians got their first chance to vote in multiparty elections, old women walked from their villages in the scorching heat to stand in long lines at the polling places. My party's symbol at the time was the rooster, and I remember the crowds lining the road to cluck and flap their elbows as a sign of support. Anyone who saw their enthusiasm, like me, could have no doubt that Liberians yearn for democracy.

That was 1985. Sadly, the military stuffed ballot boxes and burned ballots, and Samuel Doe, a sergeant who had seized power in a 1980 coup, declared himself the winner. Liberians' hopes were dashed by American recognition of the results. It is hard to imagine that Chester Crocker, the Reagan administration's assistant secretary of state for African affairs, was not being deeply ironic when he praised Doe at the time for claiming only 51 percent of the vote. It was, he said, "unheard of in the rest of Africa, where incumbent rulers normally claim victories of 95 to 100 percent."

I have been pondering that betrayal recently as I attend peace talks for my troubled country here in Accra. Founded by emancipated American slaves in 1847 as a beacon of democracy for Africa, Liberia has degenerated into a violent free-for-all. As the battle rages for our capital, Monrovia, politics has been reduced to an extended street fight among gun-toting boys. Had the United States respected the will of Liberia's voters in 1985, we would not be in the desperate straits we are today. The failure to challenge Doe's electoral fraud discredited the democratic process and paved the way for an increasingly brutal competition for power.

But we can still dare to hope. President Charles Taylor, who displays an almost psychopathic will to power and has been indicted by a United Nations-backed tribunal for war crimes in Sierra Leone, says he will step down from office today. West African states have sent peacekeepers and the United States is considering a military role. The peace talks include not just the government and the two rebel factions, but also 18 political parties and five civil society organizations.

After six frustrating weeks in Accra, I can say that the peace talks are flawed and unstructured. The process is under the direction of a mediation team from the Economic Community of West African States, and meetings take place haphazardly in ad hoc groups, with only the occasional plenary. Yet I remain optimistic that an agreement will emerge on a future transitional government. I have to, because the talks are our only way out.

Unfortunately, the United States has steadily downgraded its diplomatic presence at the Accra discussions and is now represented by a relatively junior official. This is a mistake. As the Bush administration should already have learned in Iraq, military intervention is often the easy part. The political process that follows -- call it ''nation building'' if you will -- can be much tougher.

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, recently appointed Jacques Klein as his special representative for Liberia. Because he is a former United States Foreign Service officer and a retired major general in the United States Air Force, he is seen among the Liberian parties as a virtual American envoy. Senior State Department officials are also paying increasingly frequent visits. But that is not good enough. The Bush administration should immediately dispatch a full-scale mediation team to Accra to see the process through.

If the administration does not get the politics right, any military intervention will be doomed to failure. Up to now, Washington's policy has been largely reactive. Liberia has fundamental problems to tackle if it is ever to live up to its founders' dreams of freedom and political participation. First, we need to restore hope and confidence to people subjected to despair, particularly to the thousands of young boys and girls who have been press-ganged into combat. Then we need to rebuild our institutions to ensure accountability and transparency; restructure the economic system so that it is no longer dominated by a small elite; conduct a national dialogue; and then hold elections that bring to an end our tragic tradition of rule by strongmen.

We need Washington's help to construct a credible transitional government that is interested in more than its own greed. After the betrayal of 1985, the United States owes us that much.

Source: New York Times

Liberian Rebels Said to Seize A Sierra Leone Border Bridge

Guerrillas of the Liberian rebel leader Charles Taylor have taken control of an important border bridge in neighboring Sierra Leone, a Taylor spokesman said today. The spokesman, Ernest Eastman, said the Taylor troops had pushed up to 15 miles inside Sierra Leone to block an attack by remnants of forces loyal to the slain Liberian President, Samuel K. Doe.

Sierra Leone says Mr. Taylor is trying to force it to end support for a six-nation peacekeeping force that has blocked him from advancing on Monrovia, the Liberian capital. Mr. Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia invaded Liberia on Dec. 24, 1989, from the Ivory Coast to bring down the Doe Government. The rebels met little resistance from Government forces until they reached the outskirts of Monrovia.

Source: New York Times

Preventing Genocide in Liberia

Until the 1980's, Liberia's main divide was between indigenous people and the Americo-Liberians, descended from freed U.S. slaves. Mr. Doe's bloody coup ended the old elite's dominance. Power and patronage flowed instead to the Krahn. That favoritism, along with the regime's brutality and incompetence, sparked opposition from other ethnic groups, like the Gio and the Mano. One rebel leader, Prince Johnson, is from the Gio. His rival, Charles Taylor, is an Americo-Liberian.

The U.S. cannot be proud of its own early association with the Doe dictatorship. The Reagan Administration convinced itself that Mr. Doe could provide a strategic bulwark against Communist advance. It ignored abundant evidence of official misdeeds and popular discontent and made Liberia the largest per capita recipient of U.S. aid in sub-Saharan Africa. Congress finally cut back American support after 1985. When Mr. Doe's enemies began closing in on him earlier this year, the Bush Administration rightly resisted his pleas for help.

Instead, a peacekeeping force was raised from the 16-member Economic Community of West African States. With 5,000 Liberian civilians dead and 400,000 refugees streaming over the borders, neighboring states feared chaos. Yet the force's arrival last month touched off reprisals against foreigners and fears of a wider war.

Those concerns remain valid. President Doe's murder has not ended Liberia's ordeal. The prospect of ethnic genocide compels preventive action. From Sri Lanka to the Balkans, political opportunists have exploited ethnic rivalries in the quest for short-term advantage. Too often, their efforts have drowned their countries in blood. For taking risks to prevent the worst, West Africa's peacekeepers deserve the world's appreciation, and support.

Source: New York Times

Liberian Insurgents Kill President, Diplomats and Broadcasts Report

It is unclear whether the President died from gunshot wounds suffered during his capture or whether he was killed after arriving at rebel headquarters. President Doe was reportedly seen being interrogated by Mr. Johnson shortly before his death.

The State Department in Washington said it had been informed by what it described as various reliable sources that President Doe died after the weekend shootout with rebel forces. Mr. Johnson has declared himself President until an interim government takes over, though he has reportedly not taken possession of the palace in Monrovia that Mr. Doe occupied until Sunday. While Mr. Doe's death has removed a leading figure in the Liberian conflict, the situation remains complicated.

Mr. Johnson's forces control much of downtown Monrovia, while about 6,000 to 10,000 troops loyal to another rebel leader, Charles Taylor, dominate the country outside the capital. Brig. David Nimley, commander of Mr. Doe's military forces, announced Sunday night that he was in charge, indicating that the Doe group may remain a factor.

In addition, 4,000 troops from five West African countries are in Liberia as part of a peacekeeping force dispatched last month by the 16-nation Economic Community of West African States. This intervention, inspired largely by Nigeria, was conceived as an effort to stop hostilities and organize eventual elections. The international force made a naval landing and is now occupiying part of the port area. Late last month, commanders of the West African troops named Amos Sawyer head of an interim Government. Mr. Johnson's faction has welcomed the West African force, while Mr. Taylor's group opposes it and has battled fiercely with the international contingent on the capital's outskirts.

Reports of the death of Mr. Doe seemed to signal the further disintegration of what had remained of his army. Senior officials in the Doe Government were seen today trying to negotiate with the West African peacekeeping force to evacuate Mr. Doe's relatives and close associates. Many of his soldiers were said to be surrendering or stripping off their uniforms and trying to hide. Sporadic bursts of gunfire continued in central Monrovia throughout the day as Mr. Johnson's fighters hunted down the President's men.

Western diplomats and other sources said Mr. Doe was captured after he appeared unexpectedly at the headquarters of the five-nation peacekeeping force, which has been seeking to impose a cease-fire in a war in which more than 5,000 people are believed to have been killed. Tom Woweiyu, a spokesman for the rival rebel group led by Mr. Taylor, said that according to its intelligence reports Mr. Doe intended to leave the country, possibly under the escort of the peacekeeping force. A spokesman for Mr. Johnson's group also said today that the President was seeking refuge at the peacekeeping force headquarters in Monrovia's port area, but neither report could be confirmed. Shortly after Mr. Doe's arrival, Prince Johnson and his supporters arrived and a gunfight erupted. The rebel troops then hunted down the President's soldiers from room to room and slaughtered them. More than 60 people, including dozens of Mr. Doe's bodyguards, were reportedly killed in the battle. The President was reportedly wounded in both legs.

During the hourlong battle, members of the peacekeeing force made repeated appeals to both sides to stop firing, but were unable to stop the fighting. Western and African diplomats here said today that they were dismayed that the incident occurred at the peacekeeing force's heavily guarded headquarters, and some voiced concern that troops there may have acted in collusion with Mr. Johnson's rebels. There were also unconfirmed reports that Mr. Johnson may have lured President Doe into the area by promising to sign a cease-fire agreement with him. Late last month, Mr. Johnson's faction and Mr. Doe's group announced that they had reached a truce, and Mr. Johnson said publicly that Mr. Doe was no longer his main adversary.

According to reports from witnesses at the Johnson forces' base, Mr. Johnson later interrogated Mr. Doe at length about the whereabouts of large amounts of money he was supposed to have embezzled while in power. In an interview with the BBC shortly after Mr. Doe was captured, Mr. Johnson said he was not going to kill the President, but wanted him to stand trial.

The rebellion started last December when some 150 guerrillas, led by both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Taylor, launched sporadic raids on Government outposts in northeast Liberia. But after brutal army reprisals against the population in the area, the rebellion gathered momemtum and fighting eventually engulfed most of the country of about 2.5 million people, which is about the size of Ohio.

Tonight, Mr. Woweiyu, the Taylor spokesman, said his group was willing to hold cease-fire talks with Mr. Johnson, but only if the West African force ended its efforts to set up an interim government.

Source: New York Times

Liberian President Captured by Rebels In a Fierce Gunfight

According to sketchy reports from neighboring Liberia, a skirmish occurred outside the headquarters of the five-nation West African peacekeeping force sent into Liberia in an effort to end the civil war that began in December. More than 60 people, including dozens of Mr. Doe's bodyguards, were reportedly killed in the battle. The President himself was reported to have been shot in both legs before being taken away. By nightfall, there had been no word from a rival rebel faction led by Charles Taylor, which controls much of the country outside the capital. Liberia's civil war began last December when forces of the two rebel leaders invaded from the Ivory Coast, moving into Nimba County, about 300 miles northeast of Monrovia.

The Liberian Government sent troops and provincial policemen to oust the rebels. By most accounts, the soldiers then went on a rampage, indiscriminately killing and maiming hundreds of unarmed civilians - people they apparently believed were sympathetic to the rebels. At least 400,000 Liberians are believed to have fled across the eastern and northern frontiers to escape the bloodshed, most of them settling in the heavily forested hills of the Ivory Coast and Guinea.

In early February, the two rebel leaders split into rival factions, with Mr. Johnson accusing Mr. Taylor of corruption. Mr. Taylor, a former Cabinet member, also had been accused of corruption when he was serving in Mr. Doe's Government; the President charged he embezzled nearly $1 million in Government funds. Mr. Johnson also accused Mr. Taylor of having received arms and money from Libya, an accusation Mr. Taylor has denied.

The war has become increasingly three-sided, with the two rebel factions fighting each other and Mr. Doe trying to hold onto the small fraction of the country - mostly central Monrovia -that his troops still control. The bitter rivalry between Mr. Taylor and Mr. Johnson took an unexpected turn in late August, when Mr. Taylor announced that he had signed a cease-fire agreement with President Doe. Mr. Doe and Mr. Johnson were apparently discussing the agreement today when they began to argue and fighting erupted. It was not known what role the West African peacekeeping force had played in the incident, although it reportedly occurred outside its headquarters in Monrovia's port area. According to a BBC correspondent with the West African peacekeeping force in Monrovia, Mr. Johnson said tonight that he would court-martial Mr. Doe, a former soldier, but that he did not want to kill him.

The incident reportedly began when the President, who had only rarely left his heavily fortified executive mansion since July, appeared unexpectedly at the port headquarters of the peacekeeping force. About 10 minutes later, Mr. Johnson and several of his fighters reportedly arrived and began to quarrel with President Doe's bodyguards. The rebel troops then reportedly hunted down the President's soldiers from room to room and slaughtered them. Eventually, they grabbed the President and carried him off to their base camp outside the city. Members of the peacekeeping force reportedly made repeated appeals to the two sides, but were unable to stop the fighting.

In 1980, President Doe, a 28-year-old master sergeant who dropped out of the 11th grade, came to power after he and other army noncommissioned officers seized power from President William R. Tolbert, who was shot and bayoneted to death. Ten days later, foreign reporters were invited to watch 13 senior Government officials, including most of the former Cabinet, marched nearly naked through the streets of Monrovia, tied to seaside posts and then executed at point-blank range.

President Doe's international reputation never fully recovered from that incident. His image has also suffered from persistent accusations of human rights abuses. The State Department's 1989 human rights report, released shortly after the rebel invasion, said, "Brutality by police and other security officials during the arrest and questioning of individuals is fairly common, and there has been no evidence of Government efforts to halt this practice." Since Mr. Doe came to power, more than 20 senior Government officials and army officers have been executed on charges of plotting coups.

Source: New York Times

Refugees Report Liberian 'Scorched Earth' Drive on Rebels

Refugees fleeing fighting in northeastern Liberia have told of a "scorched earth" policy by the Liberian Army, sent into Nimba Province to put down an insurgency that started there two weeks ago. The refugees told a reporter for Agence France-Presse that the army had entered villages in the northeastern region with mounted machine guns and opened automatic fire.

Those who managed to escape across the river into the neighboring Ivory Coast said they had seen friends and relatives shot by the soldiers. The villages were then burned and terrified inhabitants chased into the bush, the refugees said. Ivory Coast officials have said up to 10,000 Liberian refugees have arrived in the Ivory Coast, but other reports have put the figures much lower.

Fighting began on Dec. 24, when insurgents opposed to the West African country's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, entered Nimba, the site of previous rebellions against General Doe. The rebellion is apparently led by Charles Taylor, a former minister in the Doe Government who fell into disfavor and fled the country after being charged with corruption. A man claiming to be Mr. Taylor phoned the BBC a week ago and said the rebels were seeking to overthrow General Doe. Mr. Taylor said his forces numbered 1,000. The Doe Government has said there are 200 insurgents.

The Government has said the rebel forces destroyed two towns, Kahntle and Butuo, in the initial incursion. General Doe, who as a master sergeant came to power in a violent coup in 1980, warned a rally in the capital, Monrovia, on Saturday that if anyone was caught harboring rebels, "we will treat you as a rebel. We will carry out a massive search," he said. "Furnish us with information if you want to be on the safe side."

General Doe, who accused the Ivory Coast of harboring the insurgents, warned his neighbor that Liberian forces would pursue the rebels back over the border. Gen. Edward Smith, in charge of crushing the uprising, was quoted by Radio Elwa in Liberia as saying that among the more than 200 men, women and children killed by the rebels were 7 people shot while praying in a mosque.

While Monrovia was apparently unaffected by the fighting in the northeast, there was concern that the killing of the great-grandson of a former Liberian President on Thursday might be connected with the events in Nimba. The victim, Robert Phillipa, found beheaded with his wrists cut at his home, was one of the main defendants in the 1985 treason trial that followed a coup attempt against General Doe.

Liberia, founded by freed American slaves in 1847 and long run by their descendants, has been the closest ally of the United States in West Africa. The relationship grew especially warm during the Reagan Administration, when General Doe received nearly $500 million in aid from Washington, making Liberia the largest per-capita recipient of American aid in sub-Saharan Africa.

A United States military communications station and transmitters for Voice of America broadcasts to Africa are situated in Liberia. It is the only country in West Africa where United States military planes can land with just 24 hours' notice. But Congress has become increasingly disenchanted with the Doe Government, particularly its refusal to clean up a corrupt economy or markedly improve its human rights record. Military aid has been steadily decreased to zero over the last several years, and economic aid was cut to $31.5 million last year.

Source: New York Times

3,000 West African Troops Leave For Liberia to Enforce Cease-Fire

Six ships carrying 3,000 West African soldiers sailed from here today to enforce a cease-fire in Liberia, where a 10,000-man rebel army has rejected a proposed truce. The West African Economic Community, which dispatched the soldiers, emphasized that the force was on a peaceful mission to halt the eight-month civil war. An estimated 5,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting. The fleet could reach Monrovia, the capital, as early as Friday morning.

A rebel leader, Charles Taylor, assailed the plan as a maneuver to keep President Samuel K. Doe in power. Mr. Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia is the largest of the three armies fighting for control of this West African nation of 2.5 million. The leader of another rebel group, Prince Johnson, and the forces loyal to President Doe have accepted the proposal for a truce. Mr. Johnson's rebels and Mr. Doe's army are in control of the capital, and Mr. Taylor's force controls most of the rest of Liberia. It was unclear whether the West African peacekeeping force will enter Monrovia when it arrives or wait offshore for more negotiations to bring about a truce. Its commander, Lieut. Gen. Arnold Quainoo of Ghana, has said he does not want to risk entering Liberia until all sides agreed to stop fighting.

Peace talks are to resume on Monday, but Mr. Taylor has not said whether he will send envoys. Troops from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Guinea have been assembling for weeks. Togo had said it would send troops, but did not. Efforts to persuade Mr. Taylor to accept a role by the force collapsed on Wednesday after his representatives and West African leaders conferred for two days in Banjul, Gambia.

The Gambian leader, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, chairman of the West African organization, issued a statement that said Mr. Taylor was responsible for the failure of the talks. It said the West African group agreed at the meeting to meet Mr. Taylor's demands for an initial 10-day truce, but that Mr. Taylor's delegates backed off when they learned that Mr. Doe and Mr. Johnson had agreed. Mr. Taylor said he was concerned that hundreds of the soldiers were provided by Nigeria and Guinea, whose leaders have in the past supported Mr. Doe. Mr. Taylor led his forces into Liberia from Ivory Coast in December, saying that Mr. Doe's Government was corrupt and he would oust it.

Mr. Taylor has refused to allow thousands of Nigerians and Guineans caught behind his lines on Monrovia's eastern outskirts to leave the country. His spokesman, Tom Woewiyu, said Tuesday that the rebels would ''fight to the last man'' against the West African soldiers. "There are enough guns floating around in Liberia," Mr. Woewiyu said. "For a group of people to come to Liberia with even bigger guns is like putting an explosive in a fire."

Mr. Taylor reportedly said this week that outside intervention would leave him free to call on whatever forces he pleased for help. He has denied charges by the United States and by Mr. Johnson, who was formerly his chief commander, that his rebels were trained and armed by Libya and Burkina Faso. West African leaders decided to intervene on Aug. 6. They have argued that the war is no longer an internal conflict because thousands of their citizens are trapped in Liberia and about 400,000 Liberian refugees are burdening neighboring countries.

Source: New York Times

Liberian Rebels Invade Capital's Center

Rebel fighters waded across a swamp and shot their way into the center of the capital today, surprising Government troops who had been defending two bridges leading into the city. The rebels were part of a splinter army led by Prince Johnson, now considered by some foreign diplomats to be the strongest force challenging President Samuel K. Doe in the seven-month civil war.

On the eastern outskirts of Monrovia, the forces of the other main rebel leader, Charles Taylor, have been stalled in their assault on the city. If Mr. Johnson's fighters topple President Doe before the other rebels have a chance to, there could be increased fighting between the rebel forces. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Taylor split after the rebel invasion in December, and their forces have clashed before.

Diplomats said President Doe was a virtual hostage of his bodyguards at the heavily fortified presidential palace. The bodyguards, soldiers of Mr. Doe's own Krahn tribe, are convinced they will be massacred if the rebels take the capital and are apparently trying to use the President as a bargaining chip to obtain safe passage out of Monrovia. The Gio and Mano tribes are on the side of the rebels, turning the civil war into an outright tribal conflict. Journalists with the insurgents already have reported rebel killings of Krahns in retaliation for the killing of civilian rebel supporters by Government troops.

A United States official in Washington said Mr. Johnson's forces advanced on Monrovia's center today through a swamp from Bushrod Island, an island in the northwestern part of the city that they control, and across two bridges that were not being heavily defended by Government forces. Many of Mr. Doe's forces were seen dropping their weapons and fleeing after the surprise attack. The President's soldiers fought back from atop tall buildings. Heavy machine-gun and rifle fire shook downtown streets.

Air Cargo of Liberia, which ran the last air link into Monrovia, operated its last flight on Sunday, filled with fleeing refugees. At a supermarket opposite the main military barracks in Monrovia, the owner, Youssef Fawaz, was asked if he was planning to leave as well. "Now I have no more stock, there is nothing else left for me to do," he said. "Only, I don't know how to leave." His store's shelves were empty except for a few cans of powdered milk, boxes of tea bags and crates filled with shoe polish.

The United States official said Mr. Johnson's forces appeared to be stronger than Mr. Taylor's. Mr. Johnson began feuding with Mr. Taylor after the rebel invasion last year. Mr. Taylor has accused him of killing several of his soldiers. Mr. Johnson's men forced Mr. Taylor to delay a planned assault on Monrovia by attacking his soldiers and forcing them to regroup.

On Sunday, President Doe vowed to remain in the capital until a clear victor emerges in the civil war. Diplomats said that even if he wanted to leave sooner, the soldiers guarding him would not leave without guarantees for their safety. In exchange for allowing Mr. Doe to leave, the Krahn soldiers seek safe passage to their home territory in Grand Gedeh County. Grand Gedeh is Mr. Doe's last remaining stronghold, apart from his few remaining square miles in downtown Monrovia.

The rebels began their offensive in December and effectively control two-thirds of the country of 2.4 million people. They have accused Mr. Doe, who took power in a 1980 coup, of corruption, mismanagement and human rights abuses. Mr. Taylor has promised to maintain close ties with the United States if he comes to power, but he has ruled out immediate elections.

Liberia, founded by freed American slaves 150 years ago, has traditionally had close ties with Washington. Washington refused to send in a peacekeeping force, and on Saturday Mr. Doe ordered the American military attache expelled, accusing him of helping the rebels. The United States denied the accusations.

Source: New York Times

Besieged Liberian Talks of Elections

With rebel forces advancing on the capital, Gen. Samuel K. Doe announced today that he would not seek re-election to the presidency next year. He also appealed to the United States and other nations to help end the five-month conflict here and supervise elections in 1991.

Six United States Navy ships carrying 2,300 marines were on the way here from the Mediterranean to prepare for the possible evacuation of American citizens. Western diplomats said the convoy is expected to reach the Liberian coast next Tuesday. General Doe told reporters at a news conference that the Sixth Fleet set sail "with the approval of the Government of Liberia."

General Doe said that while the 1991 elections would be open to the country's established political parties, they would not likely include the rebel leader, Charles Taylor, who he called a "wanted man in this country."

"Until the Government can give Charles Taylor clemency, I will not talk to him," General Doe said. For their part, guerrilla leaders reiterated today that they would not negotiate with General Doe, and that his decision not to seek reelection would not dissuade them from invading Monrovia, the capital. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation from Washington, Tom Woweiyu, a rebel spokesman, said, "The only offer that Doe can make now to us that will make any sense is to surrender himself to the Patriotic Front and to the people of Liberia to stand for prosecution."

Signs of anxiety, panic and growing chaos are evident throughout the city. Most neighborhoods had little or no water, and electrical outages were frequent. The streets were lined with crowds waiting in vain for transportation. The scarcity of transportation came about because members of the Mandingo tribe, who control much of the private taxi and bus service, have fled the capital. At grocery stores throughout the city, shoppers frantically tried to stock up. At one store, James Gaye, an electrician working in a hospital, said he was trying to buy enough frozen chicken and other items to last for at least a month. Like many others, he had opened his home to relatives who had fled from the fighting in the countryside. "I've got only one bed in my house," said Mr. Gaye, who is single, "and I've got 14 relatives now trying to sleep there." He asked, "How am I going to feed all these people?"

Nearby, Nancy Yekeson was searching through mostly empty shelves of canned foods. She, her husband and four children were packing up and driving to Sierra Leone, a neighbor nation, in hopes of avoiding the expected rebel onslaught. "If you can get out, God knows, you go," she said. Most worrisome, residents said, were reports of mutilated bodies found in densely populated residential areas. At least two bodies were found this morning, one of a girl who appeared to be about 12 years old.

Tensions have also been heightened by newspaper reports of Government soldiers harassing and killing civilians and looting stores. "Man Killed by New Recruit" and "31-Year-Old Man Stabbed by Soldier" read two headlines on the same page today in The Standard, a Monrovian newspaper. Despite the evident fear, some residents said they were beginning to doubt whether the threatened rebel invasion would ever come. It has been nearly three weeks since Mr. Taylor, the rebel leader, said a takeover of the city was imminent. But except for scattered reports from skirmishes near Roberts Field, Monrovia's international airport, the rebel presence has been slight. Reports of fighting near the airport, however, have prompted most airlines to cancel flights. "They've been saying they're coming, but I'm beginning to believe that's a lot of mouth-talk," said Abu Kromah, a Monrovian taxi driver. Yet, Mr. Kromah, like many Monrovians who have the means, was preparing to take his family out of the city.

The warfare started five months ago when about 150 guerrillas invaded a half-dozen hamlets in northeastern Liberia. The Liberian Government sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. Since then, the rebels, their numbers increased several-fold, have pushed their army out of virtually all the northeastern quarter of the country. They have asserted that they control Buchanan, the port city about 88 miles by road from the capital, and that they are advancing on two fronts within 35 miles of Monrovia. The rebel force, which calls itself the National Patriotic Front, is drawn mainly from the Gio and Mono tribes of northeastern Liberia, who say they have been oppressed by members of General Doe's tribe, the Krahn.

General Doe seized power in a violent 1979 coup that ousted the privileged descendants of freed American slaves, who founded this nation. Today, a network of red-clay logging roads linking Monrovia with northwestern Liberia were clogged with overloaded vehicles fleeing the city. Because the rebel forces reportedly control the main arteries to the east and north, the western route is the only way out of the capital. Throughout Monrovia, talk centered on the United States Navy flotilla, which includes a destroyer, an amphibious assault ship, a tank landing ship and other support vessels carrying ammunition and combat supplies.

At the same time, many residents here said they were suspicious of the United States' decision to send the craft, and some wondered whether United States troops might try to prop up General Doe's Government. "Why do they need to send so many soldiers?" was a question heard often today.

The United States has extensive interests here, including a Voice of America radio transmitter and an Omega marine communications equipment station, which helps guide American vessels in the Atlantic Ocean - all of which are located fewer than 20 miles from the southern rebel front. United States Embassy officials here said that about 1,100 American citizens, including several hundred missionaries, remain in the country. About 4,000 expatriates fled last month.

Source: New York Times

Liberia's Leader Finds Himself With Few Allies

The small circle of confidants with whom President Samuel K. Doe has surrounded himself was notably smaller today with many of the palace regulars having left this capital in the face of an approaching insurgency. "A lot of them have just disappeared. They're fleeing a sinking ship," said a prominent politician here who, citing prudence, asked that his name not be used. He noted that the absence of these people became embarrassingly apparent last week when a rally in support of Mr. Doe was held on the steps of the presidential mansion. Members of the Liberian leader's family were there, but virtually all the members of his once closely knit political coterie were absent. With rebel forces advancing in recent days to a point within 35 miles of the capital, Mr. Doe is increasingly an isolated and besieged figure.

Among those who have not been seen here and are now believed to have fled the country is one of the President's closest friends and collaborators, J. Emmanuel Bowier, the Minister of Information. Other high-profile Government figures who have dropped out of sight are Emmanuel Shaw, the Minister of Finance, and Elijah Taylor, the Minister of Planning. "It's nearly impossible these days to get to someone who's really in charge," said an African diplomat from a neighboring country. "The whole Government seems to be run by acting ministers."

The leadership void is perhaps most noticeable in the Information Ministry, which seems rudderless since Mr. Bowier left for Washington a month ago as part of a delegation that sought to explain the fighting to American officials. Back in Monrovia, no news briefings were scheduled for weeks, and when official reports about the fighting were finally issued, they were widely regarded as unreliable. "We look to foreign sources to tell us what's happening in the war because the Government is always so slow, and in that climate a lot of rumors fly," said Winston Tubman, a lawyer and son of the late Liberian President, William V. S. Tubman.

A Western diplomat who has seen the President in recent days said "he is flying by the seat of his pants. He's getting information from a very narrow range of sources," the envoy added.

Initially, President Doe publicly dismissed the rebels as little more than an annoyance, a small band of lightly armed and poorly trained malcontents. This view was reinforced by some of the military advisers who repeatedly insisted that the rebels were on the verge of defeat. "He's been very badly informed about the war," said a politician who remains close to the President. He added that the problems are compounded because Mr. Doe has a low tolerance for criticism. The President, who was an army master sergeant when he led 17 noncommissioned officers in a coup 10 years ago in which President William R. Tolbert Jr. and others were bayoneted and shot to death on a beach below the executive mansion.

On seizing power, Sergeant Doe, an 11th-grade dropout who had been trained two years earlier by a United States Special forces unit, became the 20th Liberian head of state and the first one who was not a direct descendent of the freed American slaves who founded this country in 1847. During the early years of his presidency, Mr. Doe was helped by a group of young, educated civilian technocrats who included Charles Taylor, the man leading the rebels now, a force that calls itself the National Patriotic Front. Last June, after several years of night courses and private tutoring, Mr. Doe graduated from the University of Liberia, where he received a degree in political science. He wrote his senior thesis on relations between Liberia and the United States.

In a recent interview at a guest house near the executive mansion, Mr. Doe made clear his disdain for Mr. Taylor, referring to the man who had once served in his Cabinet as a fugitive from justice. In that conversation the President portrayed himself as a Liberian patriot. "I wanted you to know that there is nothing I love more than my country, and I want to do anything to bring peace," he said. He has also told associates, however, that the one thing he will not do is resign under pressure. "He was thrust into leadership at a relatively young age, with absolutely no preparation, so the pressures have been intense," a Western diplomat said. "Still, a lot of people don't understand him."

This diplomat reflected the views of several others when he described Mr. Doe as having a ruthless streak when dealing with his enemies. Mr. Doe is particularly bitter, according to several Liberians, about the growing disaffection of American officials with his Government. "Doe really believes that the United States is partially to blame for the Taylor invasion," a Liberian politician said. "He believes the Americans have given aid to the rebels."

Others who have seen President Doe in recent days say he has become more elusive and enigmatic than ever. He is rarely seen in public, and for security reasons, is said to sleep in a different house every night. He is reported to have sent his wife, Nancy, and six children to Britain to stay until the crisis is resolved. "He's determined to stick this out, and he thinks he can win," a Liberian said. "Hardly anyone else here is that confident."

Source: New York Times

War of Quick but Brutal Clashes Unfolds in Liberia

A week later, the evidence is still here. Lying in two shallow ditches behind the village are 15 bodies, swollen and decaying in the sweltering heat of the West African sun. People who are fleeing from this small village and surrounding hamlets say they saw Government troops round up people in six villages and shoot many here before the soldiers ran away on May 9. But the villagers said the gruesome outburst here was hardly unusual. The fighting began last December, when guerrillas opposed to Liberia's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, invaded the lushly forested hills here in the north. The Liberian Government then sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. Since then, a war of small, quick and often brutal engagements has unfolded, attracting little international attention.

The rebels assertion that they control 75 percent of rural Liberia is clearly excessive. But they appear to be able to move freely in more than a third of the country, making what they call liberated zones a practical reality. No definitive accounting of civilian casualties has been compiled. But Western diplomats and missionaries and other travelers through the northeastern corner of Liberia, where the fighting has centered, as well as Liberians with friends and relatives in the area, put the figure of those killed at 700 civilians or more. The Government in Liberia has not sought to deny or play down such reports.

A three-day visit through northeastern Liberia, in the company of rebel guides, showed that the guerrilla force of at least a thousand people has turned hundreds of square miles of the country into a war zone of charred huts and crumbled and blocked bridges that give them control of key roads. The guerrillas seem well equipped and appear to be at least as disciplined as the Government forces. Although the rebels also assert that they have a clandestine presence in Monrovia and the port of Buchanan, Charles Taylor, the former minister who is leading the revolt, said the rebel strategy is to gain control of rural Liberia before trying to invade urban areas. He made his comments during an interview at his base, a former Baptist mission in Tapeta, about 130 miles east of Monrovia. In this area where the rebel forces are in control, the signs of warfare are everywhere - at roadblocks guarded by heavily armed men wearing tattered rags, in the machine-gun nests on hilltops, in the trucks loaded with rebels hurtling through the countryside.

Production in the country's vital mining and logging industries has virtually halted, and the sudden flight of tens of thousands of farmers from the agriculturally rich Nimba region has clouded the prospect for this year's vital rice harvest. Nearly 200,000 of the 270,000 people estimated to reside in Nimba County have fled their homes because of the fighting and have sought sanctuary in neighboring Guinea, the Ivory Coast or in and around the Liberian capital, Monrovia. Government administration in Nimba County has ceased to function and the turmoil here, many Liberians fear, will soon threaten the rest of the nation unless a settlement is reached soon. Nonetheless, ever since the rebellion began and as recently as last week, General Doe has repeatedly asserted in Monrovia that his troops are maintaining complete control of the country. The rebels, General Doe has said, are only an annoyance, a small band of lightly armed and poorly trained dissidents fighting in isolated mountainous areas.

Mr. Taylor asserted that the insurgency was gainining momentum as it headed toward the capital. "I can assure you that we are in striking distance of Monrovia," Mr. Taylor said in the interview. Mr. Taylor, 42 years old, a stocky man of medium height with a trim beard, is a former Cabinet minister who is remembered by many Liberians for fleeing the country in 1986 after being accused of embezzlement. The rebel leader told reporters today that the charges were false and that he had been framed by General Doe.

On Saturday, the rebels captured Yekepa, site of Liberia's biggest industrial complex, an iron-ore mine. Today, heavy fighting took place around Buchanan, which the rebels say they have surrounded. Residents near the airport at Robertsfield, about 25 miles east of Monrovia, reportedly have begun to flee as fighting draws near. As Western reporters were escorted by rebel troups through Nimba and Grand Bassa counties, villagers waved, chanted and danced to show their support. "Our leader Mr. Taylor! Our leader Mr. Taylor!" they shouted. 'Doe Has Been Bad' But when asked what they thought about the rebel leader, many of the villagers confessed that they knew virtually nothing about him. Indeed, what appears to have driven many to the rebel cause was not Mr. Taylor, but rather their hatred for General Doe.

In addition to the villagers, human-rights monitors, among them members of Amnesty International and Africa Watch, based in London and Washington respectively, said they had received reports that soldiers engaged in vicious and mostly arbitrary reprisals against people they believed were sympathetic to the rebel cause. Asked about reports that Liberian soldiers were abusing unarmed civilians, General Doe offered no apologies and insisted that Government troops only pursued rebels.

Last week, Monrovia was awash in rumors that the Government was seeking a negotiated settlement with the rebels. "Doe has begun to realize that things are not going his way, and if he doesn't act soon, the rebels are going to be camped on the lawn of the executive mansion," said an African diplomat from a neighboring country.

Mr. Taylor told reporters that he wanted to get rid of General Doe and install democracy. And while he has not ruled out negotiations, he said there would be no bargaining as long as General Doe is in office. "We want Doe gone," Mr. Taylor said. "Dead or alive."

Source: New York Times

Liberian President Leads the Good Life While His Country Grows Poorer

The delivery of a new luxury plane for the personal use of the Liberian President made front-page headlines in January in this impoverished West African country. The 60-seater Boeing 707, which diplomats here say was purchased for nearly $20 million, is "yet another cost-saving measure adopted by the Government," the state-owned newspaper said, because "it will minimize the high cost of chartering private planes." What news reports did not mention, however, is that only two runways in this small country are long enough to accommodate the new aircraft, and both are near Monrovia, the capital. As for foreign travel, the President, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, has not flown overseas since he visited Romania nearly three years ago. "It's an immense waste of money," a Liberian businessman said, "especially in a country that is nearly bankrupt."

In its way, the new plane may be an apt metaphor for Liberia, which often gives the impression of forward motion, while it is rolling steadily toward financial and political collapse. Liberia is rich in minerals and has one of West Africa's most skilled and educated work forces. It also has a reputation as one of the African continent's most egregious examples of economic mismanagement. The timing of the plane's arrival was especially striking, Western and Liberian analysts said, because it came during the visit of a delegation from the International Monetary Fund. "To acquire that plane right now, with everyone watching so closely, is either an act of incredible arrogance or incredible incompetence," a longtime Western resident said.

Three years ago Liberia, which was founded in the mid-19th century as a republic for freed American slaves, became the only country in Africa ever suspended from I.M.F. and World Bank borrowing. The lenders and the Government are in the midst of negotiations over the next disciplinary step - whether Liberia should be formally declared in default and unlikely to repay $1.2 billion in debt owed to them and other foreign creditors. Later this year, in the third and final step of the sanctions process, Liberia could become the first country ever expelled from the international lending agency.

At the same time the United States, Liberia's largest trading partner and foreign investor, is also cutting back. From 1980 to 1985, the United States gave this country of 2.3 million people nearly $500 million in aid and loans, making Liberia the largest per-capita recipient of American aid in sub-Saharan Africa. But charging mismanagement and misappropriation, the United States Congress has steadily slashed aid levels, to $19.5 million last year and about $10 million in 1990.

The sense of economic disarray is compounded, Western donors and bankers say, by President Doe's growing appetite for government-subsidized extravagance. He owns a small fleet of luxury automobiles and is said to spend lavishly on clothes and jewelry. And while no reliable estimate has ever been made, rumors run through the capital that General Doe and his wife, Nancy, and other family members have accumulated extensive real-estate holdings.

One telling detail about Mr. Doe's changing values, Liberian political analysts say, is his insistence on being called "Dr. Doe," the consequence of a visit to South Korea several years ago in which he received an honorary doctorate. By law, the President's image appears ubiquitiously in public places and many people hang his picture in private offices as a display of fealty. "He is definitely encouraging a cult of personality," a Liberian businessman said, "and you don't dare suggest that there's anything wrong with it."

Well-connnected senior Government workers have also grown wealthy through lucrative business opportunities obtained through the executive mansion. And despite the Government's deteriorating fiscal condition, in recent months at least a dozen West German limousines were purchased for the small group of political cronies who surround the President. Nonetheless, when confronted with accusations of corruption, the 39-year old General Doe has said he is a victim of disinformation and has blamed his political opponents for such reports. The President's aides said he was too busy to be interviewed.

Of late, however, the most immediate threat to the Doe leadership is an armed one. Since late December, Government forces have been trying to crush an invasion by guerrillas opposed to the President's rule. The rebels, led by Charles Taylor, a former Doe Cabinet minister who is remembered here mostly for fleeing the country in 1986 after being accused of embezzlement, invaded Nimba County, about 300 miles northeast of Monrovia. The Liberian Government sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. In interviews on the Ivory Coast side of the border, refugees reported that the soldiers indiscriminately engaged in vicious and mostly arbitary reprisals, killing hundreds of unarmed civilians - people they apparently believed were sympathetic to the rebel cause.

Amnesty International and Africa Watch, human rights groups, as well as the United States Embassy in Monrovia, have also said that soldiers attacked unarmed civilians. So far, at least 140,000 Liberians are believed to have fled across the eastern frontiers to escape the bloodshed, most of them settling in the heavily forested hills of the Ivory Coast and Guinea.

Diplomats say that about half of Nimba County - its northern and eastern portions - is still contested. Guerrilla activity in these areas remains strong, and the army has been unable, despite a variety of tactics, to bring them under control. The Nimba invasion also has potentially far-reaching implications for Liberia's economy because about 30 percent of agricultural production comes from the region. By the accounting of Western economists, the sudden flight of tens of thousands of farmers has already clouded the prospects for this year's rice harvest, and there is talk of potential food shortages and other hardships. "If there is anything people react to here, it is food shortages and price increases; that combination could be explosive," said a Western relief worker who recalled that it was nearly a decade ago that proposals to increase the price of rice set off a wave of protest that eventually led to the overthrow of President William R. Tolbert.

In 1980, General Doe, an 11th-grade dropout and a 28-year-old master sergeant, came to power after he and other army noncommissioned officers shot and bayoneted President Tolbert and took over the Government. Ten days later, the foreign press was invited to record the sight of 13 senior Government officials, including most of the former Cabinet, marched nearly naked through the streets of Monrovia, tied to seaside posts and then executed at point-blank range. President Doe's international reputation has never fully recovered from that moment. Leaders of neighboring West African countries, particularly the President of the Ivory Coast, Felix Houphouet Boigny, have maintained diplomatically correct but nonetheless strained relations with the Liberian leader.

General Doe's image here and abroad has also suffered from persistent accusations of human rights abuses. The State Department's 1989 human rights report said, "Brutality by police and other security officials during the arrest and questioning of individuals is fairly common, and there has been no evident government effort to halt this practice."

Liberia's tightly controlled press rarely touches on such subjects and those who do can be expected to be dealt with ruthlessly. Dozens of journalists have been detained in recent years, often without charges, and several newspapers have been closed. The Daily Observer, Monrovia's leading independent paper, has been ordered shut five times since 1982, once for almost 20 months. Perhaps the greatest source of internal tension in recent years is the widespread impression here that a Krahn tribal elite has begun to replace the American-Liberian elite that virtually ran the country until the 1980 coup.

Unlike most countries in West Africa, until recently Liberia has been relatively free of ethnic strife. This began to change with the ascendancy of President Doe, a Krahn. Since then, the Krahn, though they make up only about 4 percent of the population, are disproportionately represented in the executive mansion, senior government positions, and the leadership of the armed forces. Most significant, senior military soldiers directing government forces in Nimba County reportedly engaged in bullying tactics and even murder. Most of the officers were Krahn, and the civilians attacked, members of the Gio and Mandingo tribes.

Source: New York Times

For Liberia's Army, the Spoils Include the People's Hatred

Sakou Saysay has had enough and wants to leave. The only obstacle now is finding a wagon big enough to take his 3 wives and 18 children. "I'm sick of living like this," said Mr. Saysay, a farmer who has lived in this remote village in northeastern Liberia for nearly 20 years. "A man can't sleep in peace here anymore."

Most of his goats, chickens and sheep have been stolen by marauding gangs of Liberian soldiers, he said. Some of his neighbors have also been held at gunpoint and forced to give money. A few have been killed. "I'm going to Guinea while I still have time, before they get me too," Mr. Saysay said. He will be joining a growing exodus of Liberians who are fleeing the worst outbreak of violence in this West African country in recent years. Diplomats and journalists say that as many as 70,000 people - about a third of Nimba County - have fled Liberia, mostly crossing into Guinea or the Ivory Coast.

The violence erupted in late December, when guerrillas opposed to Liberia's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, invaded this lushly forested area nestled in the Nimba Mountains. The Liberian Government then sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. After a bloody campaign, the Liberian Army is generally believed to have succeeded in securing the eastern half of Nimba County. But scattered fighting is reported to continue between the Liberian forces and the insurgents led by Charles Taylor, a former Cabinet minister who fell into disfavor and fled the country after being charged with corruption. Though the rebels are said to attack civilian as well as military targets, the stories told in towns and villages in this area are almost uniformly ones of bitterness toward the Liberian Army. "The situation is not about the rebels," Mr. Saysay said. "It's about the soldiers."

A Western diplomat said: "Soldiers were supposed to be up there to rid the area of rebels. But ironically, because they were such brutes, they have created a lot of sympathy for the rebels." Most residents of Nimba County are members of the Gio and Mano tribes, which are also the tribes of many of Mr. Taylor's followers. By contrast, most of the senior military officers directing Government forces here are said to be members of the Krahn tribe, as is President Doe. The Krahns, who are about five percent of the population, now dominate much of Liberia's political life.

At the once-bustling trading town of Sanoquelli, dozens of abandoned storefronts and the mostly deserted streets testify to the bloody events of January. Diplomats and international relief workers estimate that at least 500 civilians have been killed. Residents here say the dawn-to-dusk curfew imposed by the military has introduced a new element of fear. "If soldiers arrest you for curfew, they ask you for money, and if you don't give it to them, they kill you," said Mamade Kende, a farmer in Gbapa. He said he had to pay a soldier $15 not to rape his daughter. The starting monthly salary for a Liberian soldier is about $50.

Liberian forces have allowed journalists to tour secure areas of Nimba County but have blocked access to an area between Zulowi and Kahnple. Refugees who have fled across the border into the Ivory Coast and Guinea said that it was mostly in that region that soldiers went on a rampage. Asked about reports that Liberian soldiers were abusing unarmed civilians, military officials here insisted that their operations had been confined to pursuing the rebels and that any attacks on civilians were committed by the rebels. Brig. Gen. Moses K. Draig, the commander of Government forces here, said: "Harassment on the part of our troops is out of the question. They've got too much to do."

Source: New York Times

Many Flee Liberia as Clash Destroys Towns, Envoys Say

Fighting between Liberian forces and rebels opposed to the West African country's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, has devastated two towns in northeastern Liberia and sent thousands fleeing across the border, Western diplomats said today. The fighting began in the Nimba region, where according to General Doe, two groups of rebels entered Dec. 24 from the neighboring Ivory Coast.

One of the groups killed a police sergeant at the border town of Butuo before Government forces intervened, General Doe said on Tuesday. The other group reached Liberia's capital, Monrovia, but abandoned their weapons and surrendered, he said. One diplomat said the towns of Kahntle and Butuo were destroyed in the fighting. A Western diplomat in Monrovia, reached by telephone, said today that most of the rebels had reportedly fled or been killed or captured. But other diplomats said it could take time for the Government to dislodge all of the rebels from the sparsely populated region, which is about 100 miles northeast of Monrovia. Nimba was also the scene of abortive uprisings in 1985 and 1988.

Diplomats said it was difficult to determine how many Liberians were fleeing the fighting because the border area is heavily wooded and communications are poor. "People are trying to get out of the contested area," one diplomat said. "The number, however, is anyone's guess."

J. Emmanuel Bowier, Liberia's Information Minister, refused today to comment on the fighting. The official Liberian News Agency reported that General Doe would visit the region, which is under a dusk-to-dawn curfew. General Doe said on Thursday that the situation in the Nimba region was beginning to stabilize. He invited journalists to visit the area, but "at their own risk, as military operations were continuing."

Justice Minister Jenkins Scott said earlier this week that a total of 96 rebels had invaded Liberia from the Ivory Coast. He asserted that they had been trained in Burkina Faso and Libya. The Ivory Coast has repeatedly denied charges by Liberia that it provides a haven for General Doe's opponents. Burkina Faso also denied any role in the invasion.

The rebels, who are calling themselves the National Patriotic Front, are led by Charles Taylor, a former civil servant in General Doe's Government. A diplomat said that the group appeared to have no connection with Liberia's opposition parties. A man identifying himself as Charles Taylor called the British Broadcasting Corporation's African service on Monday to say that he was behind the invasion. Mr. Taylor reportedly lived as a fugitive in the United States in recent years as Liberian officials sought his extradition.

General Doe, formerly a master sergeant in Liberia's army, has withstood several coup attempts. He came to power himself in a 1980 coup in which President William R. Tolbert, a descendant of freed American slaves, and many of his political allies were put to death on a beach near the capital. General Doe has dismissed the Interior Minister, Col. Edward Sackor, for discounting a recent warning that opponents were preparing to attack.

Source: New York Times

Liberia's Leader Ousts Aide For Ignoring Hints of a Coup

The President of Liberia, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, dismissed his Interior Minister today for failing to heed a warning of an uprising by dissidents last week. General Doe also imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on the Nimba region, where his opponents attacked a customs post in what the Government called an abortive invasion from the neighboring Ivory Coast. An official statement gave few details of the attack in an eastern town, Butuo, on Dec. 24, in which an army sergeant was killed and another soldier wounded.

The Interior Minister, Col. Edward Sackor, was dismissed along with the Nimba region's senior administrator. The two men had discounted a warning by a local chief that opponents were preparing an attack. The Government has sent troop reinforcements to Nimba, scene of abortive uprisings in 1985 and 1988 against General Doe, who took power in a 1980 coup of his own. It said some of the attackers were still at large.

A man who identified himself as Charles Taylor telephoned the British Broadcasting Corporation's African service on Monday to say that he was behind the invasion. He said that more than 100 armed men had mounted attacks in Nimba and that fighting was still going on. The Government has said the situation is under control.

Mr. Taylor, who has been living in the United States, said he had just left Liberia but he would not say from where he was calling. There were no other details of his identity or background. General Doe has survived several coup and assassination attempts, the last by his former right-hand man, Nicholas Podier, who was killed in July 1988 after leading a force of 12 men from the Ivory Coast. When he took power, he was an army master sergeant. Almost immediately after his successful coup, then-Sergeant Doe had a number of leaders of the deposed civilian regime, including two former Presidents, executed on a beach near the capital.

Source: New York Times

An Opposition Leader Flees Arrest in Liberia

A Liberian opposition politician, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, fled arrest after staging an illegal weekend rally, the Star newspaper said today. The paper said that the woman, a former Citibank vice president whose case has drawn attention in the United States, held the rally in Buchanan, about 70 miles from Monrovia, without a permit.

Her arrest was ordered by the local Senator, Charles Williams, who was quoted as having said that he would have personally jailed her if she had been caught by the police. She was one of more than 20 political prisoners released from jail by President Samuel Doe last month after being held in connection with an attempted coup in November 1985. The prisoners were told to stay in Liberia.

Source: New York Times

Liberian Leader Pardons 34 Accused in Plot

Liberia's President, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, announced today that he had pardoned 34 people accused of conspiring to overthrow the Government. The Liberian Information Ministry said General Doe granted "a complete and unconditional pardon to all persons implicated and detained after the failed coup of Nov. 12, 1985."

Among those pardoned was Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a prominent opposition politician and former Citibank vice president whose case drew substantial attention in the United States. In a broadcast, General Doe said the pardon was an "act of mercy" to show "that we harbor no evil intention against any of our citizens, including those who may wish us ill."

Source: New York Times

LIBERIA GOVERNMENT FOE IS INDICTED FOR TREASON

A grand jury indicted Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a leading opposition figure, on treason charges today for her reported involvement in an attempt to overthrow the President, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, last year.

The indictment was made public after a 42-day session. It means that Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf - Finance Minister in the former William Tolbert Government as well as a Harvard-educated economist and former Citibank representative in Nairobi, Kenya - will be tried by a criminal court.

She could receive the death penalty if found guilty. No date has been set yet for the trial.

Source: New York Times

AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS FREED IN LIBERIA

Liberia's vainglorious President, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, may not care a whit about American protests over his five-year record of repression. But he plainly cares about the Reagan Administration's suspension of $25 million in economic aid, which those protests triggered.

To placate Washington, he has now ordered the release of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and 16 jailed students, evidence that financial pressure works.

Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf had returned recently to Liberia to challenge General Doe in a presidential vote next month. She was clapped in jail, charged with sedition and drew a 10-year sentence from a military tribunal. Her case attracted attention because she is a Harvard-trained economist and vice president of Citibank, unusual credentials for a seditionist.

But her plight also drew attention to General Doe's erratic despotism. Having promised elections, he eliminated rival parties, altered his birthday so that he will be 35, the required age, and jailed opposition journalists. Still in custody are Momolu Sirleaf, a relative of Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf, and Klon Hinneh, both on the staff of Footprints Today, Liberia's only remaining independent daily.

Until all such prisoners are freed, and newspapers are unmuzzled, why free that suspended aid money?

Source: New York Times

Less Liberty in Liberia

Unhappy Liberia has its own version of one man, one vote. There, only one man's vote matters. The man is Samuel K. Doe, the former sergeant who at age 28 ensconced himself as president in 1980 after his soldiers bayoneted a civilian predecessor. Mr. Doe is now a five-star general whose most conspicuous victory is over the calendar. He has added two years to his age so that, officially, he will be 35, as required by the Constitution, when the people of his West Africa country choose him as president in November's election.

To assure that result, all serious opposition parties have been ruled ineligible, their leaders jailed, their newspapers silenced. His most formidable challenger is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, candidate of the Liberal Action Party. Harvard-educated and a former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf has been Citibank's representative in Nairobi. In a speech she gave recently on a visit to Philadelphia, she faulted Liberia's lavish public spending. For this, she was arrested on her return to Monrovia, accused of endangering stability. Last week, incredibly, she was put on trial for sedition.

All this cries out for more than a routine response from Washington. Americans have special historic ties to Liberia's two million people. Liberia was established in 1822 with American help as a haven for freed black slaves. Its use of English, its Constitution and even its flag reflect this history. But the promise of liberty has never been realized. Liberians have endured poverty and corrupt misgovernment, and General Doe's erratic despotism now outdoes his predecessors'.

Nonetheless, since his coup, U.S. foreign aid to Liberia has quadrupled, to $83 million this year, the highest per capita figure in Africa. To induce him to hold the elections he promised, $250,000 of this aid was earmarked to help pay the costs. General Doe denounced Washington for interfering and vowed to return the money. Wholly in character, he hasn't.

The general seemingly assumes that the Reagan Administration will put up with anything so long as he makes anti-Communist noises and causes no trouble about a vital Voice of America transmitter. But jailing a Citibank representative for preaching fiscal conservatism shows neither scruple nor sense. If Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf and other challengers are barred from Liberia's elections, a healthy cut in Liberian aid - especially $13 million in military aid - is one vote that America can cast.

Source: New York Times